Handley Page HP.80N Victomic - Finished Pics Page 19.

[zenrat]

My father, then working for GEC, spent some time in a Swedish nuclear power plant shortly before I was conceived.
I have often wondered if this is in any way related to my bicuspid heart valve.

[NARSES2]

With a pair of binoculars I could see the silhouette of the test machine through their windows too. 

Surprised you didn't get a visit from the guys in raincoats and nondescript but smart suits ? 

[PR19_Kit]

With a pair of binoculars I could see the silhouette of the test machine through their windows too. 

Surprised you didn't get a visit from the guys in raincoats and nondescript but smart suits ? 

I used to joke with the guys there, when they phoned me for a service call, that I'd have a look at it from my doorstep and tell them how to fix it. 

The whole place has closed now, and it'll be totally returned to nature by 2248.............

[zenrat]

Anyway, today I started scratchbuilding some flap deployment arms.  The kit has some conveniently placed slots moulded into the flap recesses.  It's almost as if there was going to be more detail parts there but someone changed their mind.
I glued my arms (cut from evergreen sheet) into the slots and am adding surface texture with half round strip.
A smidge of putty was needed around the cockpit canopy.

[zenrat]

Painting.

Last night I got carried away and put far too much white primer on the fuselage and tail.
This morning before work I sanded off the crazing and runs and then started again building up coverage with lighter coats.  By tonight the fuselage is where I want it to be before I put on a top coat.
Tomorrow i'll repeat the process with a wing (being a big heavy model - especially the nose due to my weights - I can't just shove a stick up it for painting and so have to have parts I can hold on to).

Transfers are printed and cleared.

[sideshowbob9]

My father, then working for GEC, spent some time in a Swedish nuclear power plant shortly before I was conceived.
I have often wondered if this is in any way related to my bicuspid heart valve.

My dad worked on Dungeness B during comissioning! 

[Rheged]

My father, then working for GEC, spent some time in a Swedish nuclear power plant shortly before I was conceived.
I have often wondered if this is in any way related to my bicuspid heart valve.

My dad worked on Dungeness B during comissioning! 

My dad designed some ancillary pipework for Calder Hall; the world's first civil nuclear power station! 


(Actually it was the central heating for the offices, but let's not have the truth get in the way of a good story!)

[PR19_Kit]

Wasn't Calder Hall a dual-use site, producing both electricity for the National Grid and plutonium for the weapons programme? I always understood that Magnox reactors, of which Calder Hall #1 & #2 were the first examples, were designed specifically for such dual use.

The Berkeley Station, right opposite me on the River Severn, also used Magnox reactors, but they were solely used for electricity production, or so they told me when they were one of my customers................... 

[sideshowbob9]

Hmmm..... a lot of whiffers have connections with nuclear power stations. There you have it. Whiffery is a mutation!

[Rheged]

Wasn't Calder Hall a dual-use site, producing both electricity for the National Grid and plutonium for the weapons programme? I always understood that Magnox reactors, of which Calder Hall #1 & #2 were the first examples, were designed specifically for such dual use.

The Berkeley Station, right opposite me on the River Severn, also used Magnox reactors, but they were solely used for electricity production, or so they told me when they were one of my customers................... 

That's correct, Kit.     The primary purpose of both Calder Hall and Chapel Cross (both near where I used to live in Carlisle) was to produce plutonium for  both the UK and US nuclear weapons programmes . Electricity was always considered to be a by-product.  The UK plutonium supplies to USA were vital in maintaining the US nuclear deterrent.  Quantities of tritium were also produced, much exported to US and vital for the Polaris and Trident missile warheads.  Berkeley, Oldbury and Hinkley Point (all near you) were just power producers  BUT the used fuel rods sent back to Calder/Windscale for reprocessing were sources of plutonium/tritium.

[NARSES2]

Now I could tell you some stories about the manufacture of the plate used to fabricate the "flasks" used to transport the used fuel rods from the power stations to the re-processing plants, but I won't as you might be having your breakfast  All I will say is that it was the only order I knew of that received a first birthday card from the customer 

[Rheged]

One of these flasks?    https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=train+hits+nuclear+flask&docid=608027310320715777&mid=A70BE6A844D07DC78017A70BE6A844D07DC78017&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

Waste of a good class 46 loco...........but did you see how the carriages stood up to the impact?

In a possibly vain attempt to drag this thread back to its original purpose:- I suppose these containers would be used to transport used fuel rods from the Victomic airfield to Sellafield/Calder Hall/Windscale/whatever name the place has this week   for reprocessing.

[zenrat]

Early GEC proposals for the operational version of the Victomics reactor included ejector ports from which the fuel rods were to be launched as the aircraft swooped low across Cumbria.
The prototype's reactor however was designed to be lowered as a complete unit for it to be taken away for maintenance.

Some paint on a wing today.
Here she is in my sophisticated model holding clamp.
Victomic WIP 02-09-2020 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

[sideshowbob9]

Air-dropped fuel rods? Why, dear {insert diety} why?!!!

Stick with the prototype's arrangements for the love of Cumbria!

[zenrat]

Sorry, forgot to mention Rod capture ponds would be built for them to land in...

The idea was to save time and transport costs.